Sent Beyond Salvation
by 8th Archangel
Summary: What if a forerunner station tore through the shroud separating two galaxies? What if one galaxy lacks the force and the other doesn't? Follow a squad of commandos and arcs sent on what were supposed to be a routine missions. Everything they know will be tested and every bound of their training pushed. Will they break or make it home before the shattered veil heals itself.


Prologue

Beams of light raced along the walls and floor illuminating rooms and corners where possible threats lurked. Boots moved near soundlessly across the sleek floor. Guns at the ready led the way.

The silence, an omen, reigned throughout the station. The walls shook periodically in a grim reminder that it could not survive the assault much longer. No matter how strong the shield was it would only be a matter of time before they crumbled leaving a thin layer of metal between the squad and the unforgiving embrace of space.

The mission was simple. Wipe all the research progress made on this station from the mainframes and blow it to kingdom come. There was only one small hitch. Once the station was set to self-destruct the shield would drop and extraction would be running late.

….

Location: Triple Zero, Palpatine's office.

Year: 20BBY.

Time: 22:55

Sidious paced the length of his office. Each time a wall rose in his path he spun sharply facing the other direction. Fast strides made the space of his office constricting, suffocating, almost like the walls where barring in on him. In Sidious's mind a similar pattern took place. Where he could normally just plow through the walls, now they corralled him.

His plans had been moving along beautifully. It wouldn't be much longer before young Skywalker became ready to fully embrace the dark side. Then he felt a ripple in the force some hours ago. A second had followed in its wake, and then another one, and another one. With each one came hundreds of visions flickering behind his eyes, but with each ripple the visions sped up becoming indiscernible from one another. Then just as suddenly as the ripples started, they ended.

Sidious had believed it ended there. Regret was something he rarely experienced, but now he wished he had reinforced his mental walls. There had been no ripples this time round. No, build up in intensity. It had started as a unified wail of the force deafening in nature bringing even the least force attuned to its knees. On the heels of the first crippling punch hundreds of waves of raw force, pain and visions crashed leaving no room to breathe. The visions merged into one mind crippling mess. It was like an endless artillery barrage onto an already decimated defenseless town.

Reaching into the force Sidious faced his second wall that night.

The dark side had recoiled from him like a slave in the presence of a heavy-handed master. Again, and again he reached out. Each time more forcefully. The results only became more fruitless as not only the darkside retreated but also the lightside. Sidious felt like the very life had been sapped from his body. If one was to have looked out the window, they would have seen speeders veering out of their lanes into shielded buildings or each other, citizens dropping unconscious or developing spontaneous nose bleeds comparable to faucet being opened from the nose.

Looking back now Sidious realized the force had all but retreated from Coruscant, maybe many more parts of the galaxy. Then just like a tsunami it had come funneling back in pure and raw. He had never felt so alive as in that moment when his body reabsorbed the life-giving power of the force.

Later the next day would reveal something that was once thought improbable to happen on such scale.

….

Cain's fingers flew across the keyboard with lightning speed. File upon file of data purged itself from the systems. The timer on his HUD synchronized with his squads ticked down into the three-minute marker. A drop of sweat traced its way down his brow even with his suits environmental controls functioning to full capacity. When volunteering along with the rest of Argonne squad he had been fully aware that this may very well be a one-way trip. Sweeping through the empty rooms and halls death had echoed like a distant bell. Now, two minutes and fifty-eight seconds remaining on the clock, the consequences of his choices really set in.

Glancing from the corner from his eye Cain gazed upon the rest of his squad, brothers in more ways then he had been with his blood. Dale with his pale complexion, medical supplies to suit for most situations, and a never-ending supply of snarky comebacks. Daraz's and his silence accompanied by a heavy accent, blunt wording, and a rifle nearly as long as he is high. Then there was their squad leader, Harper. Possessing an affinity for speeches and getting people who by all means would kill each other to work together.

Leaning against the console where he worked was Cain's Assault Rifle. The weapon had been with him only for a week its predecessors having been lost along with the planets they were used to defend. Just like the other ones this rifle would also be lost to him, humanity, and the universe. Only this time there would be one difference. He would be gripping that rifle till there was no more blood the damn Covies coming for this station could bleed.

About to input the final passcodes to activate the self-destruct subroutine another console flickered to life. On its display was one screen displaying the outline of a green circle. This circle had five smaller circles within it much like those old Russian dolls and was divided into slices like a pizza. A red grid sprung to life behind the circles followed by numbers.

"Who the hell touched the radar console?" Approaching the radar Harper looked upon the other two members of the squad standing idly near cover.

Three negatives echoed simultaneously.

The steely edge in Harper's voice cut through the tense silence with scythe-like precision. "Then explain how a console just springs to life without being touched."

"Pulling up the self-destruct subroutine could have activated the radar." Harper turned to face Cain who looked their way. Silver visors locked with grey visor and behind the visors, brown and grey eyes locked.

"Sarge? You might want to see this." Dale who had since begun fiddling with the radar called out.

"What"

"You said we wouldn't be getting reinforcements and the Covies didn't have any ships this big in the sector."

Turning back to the radar Harper narrowed his eyes analyzing the screen and blip registering at the edge. A size redoubt of just over 1 km had already popped up on the side of the screen. In this time the blip had traversed two of the circle's rings. A second redoubt came to life bellow the first. It was the estimated shape of the ship along with an estimated depth and speed.

"Impossible." Daraz's statement almost echoed in the room hanging over all present.

"I didn't think there were any ships that could travel at the speed of light outside of slipspace."

Cain came to stand beside Dale looking at the screen, "They can't."

Several more readouts appeared as the ship entered the fourth ring leaving only two more rings before it collided with the station. Then just like that the blip vanished and the room released a collective breath.

"Glitchy old device." Daraz's comment caught everyone in the center. The short man was never one to waste his breath.

Cain returned to his original console the timer on his HUD at one minute two seconds.

"Sir ready to activate the self-destruct protocol on your mark." A coldness seeped into the air with the utterance of the words.

"Acti…."

Harper's words were cut off by a panicked Dale calling his name and an ear-piercing proximity claxon going off. The last thing Dale saw before blinding light and heat consumed him was the blip reappear on the radar holding a vector for a head-on collision with the station.

**Me at 1 am: **Star eyed glance around. "OMG, this was so easy. Why do people say writing is so hard?"

**Me rereading my work:** "What the hell have I written. Eighty percent of this is going on about coffee."

**Hey brave souls willing to step into this small section of hellscape from my imagination. I'm 8th Archangel or 8th for short.**

**This is my first time posting on this site, any sight for that matter but doesn't tell anyone kay "it's our lil secret." Any advice to improve my writing is welcome and so is constructive criticism, "my bro criticism leaves a bit to be desired on the constructive side." The next chapter has been already plotted out mostly and should be up before the end of the month. **

**Thank you for reading, 8th out.**

_**(Edited 24/05/2020 – this story died faster then I care to admit, but I am going to give writing it another shot. Editing this chapter with a fresh eye was an experience. I found, lost and removed a Craig from the ODST squad)**_


End file.
